Air circulating apparatus



Nov. 20, 1951 J. I. SHIREMAN 2,575,894

AIR CIRCULATING APPARATUS Filed April 9, 194a @n S/ Z729 man WXWPatented Nov. 20, 1951 T D STATES" PATENT oFFI-C John I. Shireman,Hershey, Pa. Application April 9, 1948, Serial No. 20.069

-'This invention relates to' an improved air circulating apparatusadapted for use in dwellings and other enclosures in conjunction witheither a-heating or refrigerating unit for circulating either hot orcoldair through the enclosure. More particularly, it is an object of thepresent invention to provide an air circulating apparatus including acasing through which the air is propelled and containing a series ofhorizontal conduits through which all of the air is passed and whichconduits are disposed to be either heated or cooledfor thereby eitherheating or cooling the air passing through the unit.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter.becomemore fully apparent from the following description of the drawing,illustrating a presently preferred embodiment thereof, and wherein:Figure 1 is a side elevational view, partly in section showing the aircirculating apparatus employed with the heating unit; 'Figure2 is an endelevational view thereof looking from right to left of Figure 1; VFigure 3 is a top plan view of the apparatus, and

Figure 4 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view showing the apparatusutilized as a cooling and air conditioning device.

Referring more specifically to the drawing, the

air circulating apparatus in its entirety is designated generally 5 andincludes a relatively wide and relatively tall upright casing 8 adaptedto be supported by depending legs I and provided with a plurality ofspaced horizontal partitions 8 having openings 9 in staggeredrelationship adjacent opposite ends thereof. The bottom partition 8forms a chamber or compartment l8 therebelow which, in the embodiment ofthe invention as illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3, is shown containinga suitable burner II which is removably disposed therein. One side wallof the casing 6 is provided with an opening normally closed by a door l2and through which the burner II can be applied or removed. The frontwall l3 of the casing 8 is provided with one or more openings M foradmitting air to the chamber l0.

Each of the chambers l5, located between the partitions 8 has aplurality of tubes or pipes 18 extending therethrough from front torear. Each of the pipes I 8 has one end extending through and anchoredin the front wall I 8 and its opposite end extending through andanchored in the rear wall I! of the casing 8.

The uppermost partition 8 combines with the 1 Claim. (01. 257-171) top[8 of the casing 6 to form an upper chamber which communicates with aflue [9 which is connected to and rises from the top I8.

A relatively wide air supply pipe 20 has a poi tion extending throughthe chamber 2!, formed by the uppermost partition 8 and top l8 and whichconduit 20 passes through the front and rear walls l3 and I 1 and hasan'inlet end extending upwardly from adjacent the rear wall l1 and anoutlet end extending downwardly adf jacent the front wall l3." Saidoutlet end 22 of the conduit 20 connects with a'jacket23 which issecured to the outer side of the front wall 13 and over the portionthereof through which each of the tubes or pipes l6 extend. An airpropelling fan 24 is disposed within the jacket 23 and is adapted to'bedriven bya'motor 25, supported on the conduit portion 22 in a directionforpropelling the airfrom the jacket 23 through the tube l8 towardtherear wall I l and for'drawing the air downwardly through conduit2lland into said jacket 23. l

A relativelylargeair jacket 26 is secured to and projects from the rearwall I Tancl-is' dis-'- posed over a portion thereof through which thetube l6 extends so that all of said tubes will discharge into the jacket26 which is provided with an outlet conduit extending upwardly from thetop thereof as seen at 2'! and which may be provided witha plurality ofbranch conduits, not shown, for distributing the air from the jacket 28to a plurality of rooms of an enclosure. Likewise, the air conduit 28may be provided with a plurality of branch conduits leading to separaterooms of an enclosure for drawing air therefrom to the apparatus 5. Atrough 28 is disposed in the bottom portion of the jacket 28 and issecured to the rear wall I! so that the open top thereof will bedirectly beneath the level of the lowermost tube 16. The trough 28 isprovided with a filling spout 29 which extends outwardly from one of theside walls of the jacket 26 and through which said trough may be filledfor humidifying the air passing into the :7 jacket 26 from the tube l8.

From the preceding description it will be readily apparent that theproducts of combustion from the burner I I will pass upwardly throughthe openings 9 back and forth by a circuitous route through thecompartments or chambers l5 and 2| of the casing 6 for externallyheating the tubes l8 so that the air passing through said tubes from thejacket 23 to the jacket 26 will be heated thereby. The products ofcombustion after bein discharged into the upper chamber heated by thehot air and products of combustion passing back and forth by acircuitous route upwardly through the casing of the apparatus.

Figure 4 illustrates the apparatus 5 employed as an air conditioner andcooling apparatusand which is readily accomplished by the simpleexpedient of removin the burner II from the chamber l and applying aportion of a refrigerating apparatus 30 to said chamber I0 so that thecold air therefrom will :chill the tubes i6 for cooling the air drawnthrough and expelled from the apparatus 5. As illustrated in Figure 4, aportion of the refrigerating apparatus is shown disposed externally ofthe casing 6 and said portion may be enclosed in a suitable box or othercontainer 3|. The apparatus employed with the refrigerating unit 30 isidentical in construction to the apparatus as illustrated in Figures 1to 3 and a further description thereof is therefore-consideredunnecessary.

Various modifications and changes are contemplated and may obviously beresorted to, with out departin from the spirit or scope of the inventionas hereinafter'd'efined by. the appended claim. r V

,I claim as my invention:

An air circulating apparatus comprising an upright. casing, a heatingunit mounted in the bottom portion of the casing, partitions formingbaflles disposed within the casing above the heating unit and one abovethe other for directing products of combustion from the heating unitupwardly through the casing by an undulatin circuitous route, saidcasing havinga front-wall, a rear wall and side walls, a plural ity oftubes extending through the casing and opening outwardly'of the frontand rear walls, said tubes being disposed between the baflies, saidbafiles having staggered openings located adjacent said side walls forcausin the prodnets of combustion to pass back and forth in the casingbetween the bafiies and around the tubes for heating the tubes, a jacketmounted on the outer side of the front wall and communicating withcorresponding ends of the tubes, air

propelling means disposed in the jacket for dis-' charging air therefromthrough the tubes for heating the air, said casing having a top wallspaced from the uppermost baflle, a flue stack rising from said top walland disposed remote to the opening of the uppermost baflle, an air inletconduit havin a discharge end opening into the jacket, said air inletconduit'having a horizontally disposed enlarged portion extendingthrough the front and rear walls and through the casing between its topwall and the uppermost baffle and substantially filling the upperportion of the casing said enlarged portion of the inlet conduit forminga hollow bafile between the opening of the uppermost baths and the fluestack around which the products of "combustion pass to the flue stackfor restricting the discharge of the products 'of combustion and forinitiall heatin the air passing throughthe'air inlet conduit, and anoutlet jacket mounted on the rear casing wall into which each of thetubes discharge and having an outlet conduit leading therefrom forconveying the "heated'air "from the apparatus.

JOHN I. SHIREMAN;

REFERENCES orrao The following references are of record'in the his ofthis patent: T

837,83? France Q nov. 18, 1938

